A is for Aden and Z is for Zanzabar

A is for Aden and Z is for Zanzibar... Now what is between? For the world wide classical era philatelist and stamp collector, a country specific philatelic survey is offered by the blog author, Jim Jackson, with two albums: Big Blue, aka Scott International Part 1 (checklists available), and Deep Blue, aka William Steiner's Stamp Album Web PDF pages. Interested? So into the Blues...

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Cameroun

French Occupied Cameroun stamp of 1916-17

Quick History
Cameroun (In English-Cameroon) is located on the African west coast. The Capital is Yaounde and the population was 2,500,000 in 1938. Since 1884 until WW1, Kamerun (German) was a German Protectorate. During WW1, the country was occupied by Great Britain and France, and then in 1922 was mandated to them by the League of Nations.
The stamp issues of 1897-1915 are under German Dominion. Then there are both British and French occupation stamps with overprints from 1915-17. Provisional French Mandate stamps were issued in 1921, and permanent Mandate stamps in 1925. In the British portion, the stamps of Nigeria were used.
In 1960, the French part of Cameroun became independent from France. The northern British section voted to join Nigeria, while the southern portion joined the French part of Cameroun.

Name trivia: Portuguese sailors in 1472 found mud lobster in the river there, and hence named it "Rio dos Camaroes" - "River of Shrimp".

I must admit, I find the Cameroun French designed stamps highly attractive; and they are also inexpensive. Big Blue has a nice selection; but as a "representative" album, there are more stamps that the Big Blue collector might want to consider.

1939-40 issue (Compared to '41, eight stamp advantage for '47 -and '69 and ''97 BB)
The '41 has 2 illustrative, 4 descriptive and 2 blank spaces= 7 total spaces
The '69 has 2 illustrative, and 13 descriptive spaces= 15 total spaces
Therefore the '47 ( and '69 and '97) have spaces for 247,248,249,250,251,252,253,254, missing from '41.

Big Blue Bottom Line
Interesting philatelic history with German, British, and French (mainly) stamps issued. Very attractive French Mandate stamps. Of the 117 stamp spaces in Big Blue, 70 are quite inexpensive(<$1). If you like the country, there are an additional 45 stamps for a reasonable cost that could be picked up.

Note: You will need to consult a Scott catalogue for specific pricing. I only give a very "ball park" price, and never the actual catalogue value.<$1= less than a Dollar$1+= more than a Dollar$2+= more than two Dollars$5+= more than five Dollars$10+= more than ten Dollars$20+..and so on.

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About Me

After thirty years of being away, I resumed my 1840-1940 worldwide collection in 2011. I initially settled on Big Blue, the Scott International Volume (Part) 1. But there was no checklist: - until now. You can see the results with my blog posts.
In the meantime, I began to put my collection in the WW classic Steiner albums (Deep Blue). I love evaluating the classical stamps for a country, and reporting the findings here.
And I would appreciate any suggestions for making this effort better. Enjoy!
Jim